Chapter 1, Introducing Scientific Computing with Scala, looks into the feasibility of using Scala for scientific computing. An overview of the state-of-the-art libraries and tools in Scala scientific computing is given here.

Chapter 2, Storing and Retrieving Data, provides various options for storing and retrieving data in Scala. Popular data storage and retrieval formats that you may encounter in scientific computing are explored.

Chapter 3, Numerical Computing with Breeze, is about using the Breeze library for numerical computing.

Chapter 4, Using Saddle for Data Analysis, explores the functionality of the Saddle library for structured data analysis and manipulation.

Chapter 5, Interactive Computing with ScalaLab, explores the possibilities offered by the ScalaLab environment for interactive computing.

Chapter 6, Parallel Programming in Scala, is about parallel programming in Scala. Various techniques, including JVM threads, parallel collections, and actor-based concurrency with Akka, are covered.

Chapter 7, Cluster Computing Using Scala, teaches how to use Scala programs in distributed computing environments and shows how to use MPI from Scala, and more.

Chapter 8, Scientific Plotting with Scala, gives various options for carrying out plots in Scala.

Chapter 9, Visualizing Multi-Dimensional Data in Scala, elaborates on advanced plotting and visualization.

You will need Scala and SBT installed on your system. Technically, you only need SBT, since SBT will install the required version of Scala for you. You can get Scala and SBT from the following websites:

It is advisable that you use a UNIX-like operating system for this book. However, this is not strictly necessary for most chapters. You will also need a Scala IDE or a text editor. Setting up Emacs to work with Scala and SBT is covered in the book. Alternatively, you can use any editor you are comfortable with.

This book is for scientists and engineers who would like to use Scala for their scientific and numerical computing needs. Basic familiarity with undergraduate-level mathematics and statistics is expected but not strictly required. Basic knowledge of Scala is required as well as the ability to write simple Scala programs. Complicated programming concepts are not used in the book. Anyone who wants to explore using Scala for writing scientific or engineering software will benefit from the book.

In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "For now, simply create a new folder called csvreader and a file in it called CSVReader.scala."

A block of code is set as follows:

object CSVReader {
    def main(args: Array[String]) {
        for (line <- Source.fromFile("iris.csv").getLines()) {
            println(line)
        }
    }
}

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

scala> xs dot ws
res2: Double = 27.5

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: "You can access it via the Plot menu option."

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